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They would enter the bank and ask for their cash. Yuriko Asahara, behind the counter, would check where they would stash it — in the side pocket of a handbag or perhaps deep down in a shoulder bag. Asahara wasn’t spying. She knew she’d ...

As Japan tries to mobilize underemployed workers and revitalize business outside major city centers like Tokyo and Osaka, crowdsourcing — the allocation of tasks to remote workers online — may become a valuable tool. Crowdsourcing has blossomed with the advent of the online economy, ...

Japan’s stringent refugee screening system should clarify the criteria used to recognize applicants and create safeguards to protect those considered vulnerable, an advisory panel tells the Justice Ministry.

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While many tourists go to great lengths to always be digitally accessible, a growing number of gadget-weary travelers in Japan are seeing what it is like to leave behind mobile phones and social media services altogether. Joining a trend that started overseas last year, ...

Public programs are encouraging more people to migrate from big cities to reverse the persistent population drain plaguing rural areas. Daisuke Moriyama, 40, quit a major securities company in Tokyo in March 2013 and moved his family to Mitane, Akita Prefecture. Now he commutes ...

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Thursday it plans to boost the capacity of nursing care facilities in the capital. Ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the metropolitan government will take steps to make the capital more friendly to foreign visitors, it also said ...

As part of its comprehensive strategy to combat population decline and revitalize Japan’s regions, the government will aim to create 300,000 regional jobs by 2020 to stem the flow of young workers to Tokyo, according to a final five-year policy plan obtained by Kyodo ...

Takashi Kinoshita, 73, lived most of his adulthood with a secret that until recently he wouldn’t dare divulge even to his children: he was nearly illiterate. As a child, Kinoshita grew up at a time when Japan was still in the grip of postwar ...

An increasing number of students are struggling to pay education loans and more than 6,000 lawsuits were filed over the fallout in the 2013 academic year alone. Kazuya Fujishima, 29, a graduate student at Hokkaido University, owes some ¥10 million in an interest-bearing loan ...

The depreciation of the yen is boosting demand in industries like shipbuilding, where companies are scrambling to hire enough workers, especially in areas where the number of working-age individuals is declining. The number of people in Japan aged 15 to 64 has steadily declined ...

With its aging workforce, Japan is facing a severe labor shortage in the construction and civil engineering industry. But a painting company in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, may have some answers. Fumika Kono, 22, is a rookie construction site supervisor at the company, Nagaoka Tosoten ...

The government in 2020 is expected to set a goal of reducing the number of new residents in Tokyo by 70,000 per year from the 2013 level to ease overpopulation in the capital, a draft of the policy showed Friday. Later this month, Prime ...